Wild Honey St. James review: It does the original proud

The vibe

When the original Wild Honey in Mayfair shut its doors, there was dismay at Vogue House. The restaurant hit a sweet spot: its glamorous, intimately proportioned dining room made any lunchtime visit feel like an occasion, but it wasn’t so smart as to be OTT. Being located a minute’s walk from the office, that made it a perfect spot for doing business. We grew fond of the place – and its closure was a (very-first-world) blow.

So when we heard that it had reopened on St. James, we were delighted for its proprietor Anthony Demetre (if a little disappointed that he’d inconsiderately chosen to locate it more than a minute away) and, obviously, had to see its new incarnation.

How has it changed? Well, the restaurant is now located inside the Sofitel. That might make you shudder but, actually, it works – it feels like an entity in its own right rather than “the hotel restaurant”. The more serious challenge it faces is that the room is huge, and filling a huge room every night of the week is always tricky. To get around this, the designers have run a banquette down the middle, which turns the front half into a ‘room’ within the room, and the reservations team fill that half first. It’s a clever piece of legerdemain that allows the restaurant to buzz even when not at capacity.

As for the decor, the whole thing is much more contemporary than the original site (no wood panelling, no plasterwork), but the set-up achieves the same end: it lets diners feel like they have their own space and that they can settle in for the long haul. The chairs envelope you reassuringly. More restaurants should do that.

The menu

As with Arbutus, or the first Wild Honey, the cooking is terrific. Some highlights: Charentais melon shrouded in Italian lardo (imagine melon and parma ham – that most elementary of dishes – elevated to lofty heights); the grilled beef (cooked to a wonderfully gnarly bark on the outside, while remaining succulent in the middle); and ice cream (served with honey scraped from a frame of honeycomb right there at the table). And as for drinks? Do try the Domaine de la Tournelle fortified wine as an aperitif. It’s a revelation.

The verdict

Walk into the new Wild Honey and you’re not walking into the restaurant you remember. But relax into your seat, make your first forays into the menu, and it’s Anthony Demetre all over. It deserves to do very well.